The general rise in fitness awareness has led to an appreciation of the benefits of exercising in a water environment. The user may be partially or nearly completely submerged.
One of the benefits of the water is the buoyancy on the body, wherein the user exercises certain muscles with an effectively reduced gravity force on the body. In this way the energy needed to support the body is reduced therein placing more emphasis on muscles targeted by a specific exercise. Another advantage is the capability of water to maintain a reasonably constant body skin temperature.
A device presently in use is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,735 ('735), issued on Jul. 23, 1991, the '735 patent being a continuation of U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,673 ('673), issued on Oct. 24 1989, both invented by Curtis Erickson.
These patents teach a device which attaches at the side of a pool. The device has a partly submerged frame and typically mounts to a pool ladder. The upper part of the frame has fixed hand grips for exercises wherein the user pulls himself up partially out of the water, and a pivoting extension attached to the lower submerged part of the frame.
The pivoting extension has a range of positions of from 0.degree. to 90.degree. from the vertical as the extension pivots away from the pool wall. This extension has cylindrical structures wherein the user may, at least, perform situps.
The Erickson devices are limited in position and flexibility. The hand grips and the pivot extension are not adjustable relative to each other or to the water surface after assembly. In addition, there are limited chest and leg exercises, and there is no provision to adjust the resistance to motion (that is, the force exerted by the user is not adjustable in these devices). In addition, these devices cannot be used for bar dips, and they have only limited ability to exercise the chest, triceps, lats (latissimus dorsi), back or leg muscles.
The known devices are simply not designed to accommodate children, women and men of different sizes and strengths. Nor are the known devices designed to provide an easily adjustable workout or exercise load thereby tailoring a specific workout regimen.
An object of this invention is to provide an improved water exercise and fitness device using water inertia, in addition to gravity, as a variable source of resistance to motion.
It is an object of this invention to provide exercise and fitness device for substantially the entire body, at least including the arms, chest, spine, legs, abdomen, hips and back.
It is another object to provide handgrips with adjustable positions for comfort and to provide a variety of gripping positions, and wherein the user may select how much of users body emerges from the water.
It is an object of this invention to provide an adjustable device whereby children, women and men of various sizes and strengths may be accommodated.
Another object of this invention is to provide submerged, adjustable exercise apparatuses for the arms, chest and lower back and extremities.
It is a further object of this invention to provide removable, adjustable attachments, at least including a bench, submerged bars and grips, foot rests, bicycle, stair-stepping and treadmill options, wherein the attachments provide a variety of exercises for substantially the whole body.
It is yet another object of to provide a device which is mounted to the pool ladder or at the pool side.
It is yet another object of to provide a device which is stable, durable, strong and long lived.